HFaoF I: Under the Crystal Moon
by SIMIOCAOS
Summary: Heroes, Freelancers, and other Fools: (Set five thousand years before the events of FiM) Finally, after a thousand years the conflict between the Crystal Empire and the Noctees, the Pony-Noctees war is drawing near to an end. Follow the stories of both sides as they face their destiny in the final stages of an ancient battle that reshaped the fate of the very world.
1. Introduction: A Verse of Night and Day

Hi, here I am again, hoping that I've made a story that could entertain you.

I sincerely hope I have.

Keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times, and abstain from taking pictures or feeding the characters. It may startle them. If you have questions, please feel free to address them to your tour guide. Exits are located at the end of the browser, and if you have recommendations leave them in the review box at the end of the text.

For everything else, please enjoy.

Sincerely: SIMIO

* * *

**Acknowledgements:**

TornadoanTwilight - For lending me part of your wonderful universe, I hope I've put it to good use.

Richard Adams - For inspiring me with your beautiful lines, may the Black Rabbit watch over you.

* * *

**A Verse of Night and Day**

Proud B'zekre, the Horsemaster, casted away,  
All sons that were not of her own,  
And banished them from the light of day  
So that they'd remain in the shadow known.

Since the dawn of time they've waited,  
Alone in their caverns of old,  
Meanwhile the sun lovers created,  
A world of light which sparkled bold.

But unknown to the lovers of light,  
Have the darkness being watching,  
And while all voices casted their plights,  
Great old fires were burning.

So it came to pass, that pushed by hunger,  
The sons of Naqesis set for disaster,  
And they torn the land asunder,  
With the red blood of the Horsemaster.

Kingdoms were shattered and empires fell,  
All hope was broken as slaves reveled,  
Which side lost more is still hard to tell,  
But both lost their sons as their very fates dueled.

And so it came the day when great spells were casted,  
And the old wrath of the night were fully unleashed,  
That there was no kind that could've yet lasted,  
And they all were gone when the storm was finished.

And so it is now in tales only spoken,  
About great and old demons with fright,  
May they never again be fully awoken,  
So they stay dormant the ire of night.

* * *

His body hit the ground with tremendous strength, feeling how the impact took his breath away. Beneath the weight of gravity, he extended his wings to take flight, but couldn't seem to move any further. His entire nerve frame was paralyzed by the thick pain that was flourishing in it. His mind wandered for a moment. The light in the darkness that was the smoke around him seemed to shine brighter. It would take much experience to have dodged a blow like that, but even him knew he had being struck hard, and that if he wouldn't stand up now, then perhaps he wouldn't stand up again.

Around him, the sounds of the skirmish combined with the screams, both of the battle an of the wounded, were mixing with the bright orange of the flames that were eating the tents one by one throughout the camp until they formed a homogeneous mass of pure background hell. His hell.

And there was, of course, _him_. Standing before his and Bow String's broken figures, with his membrane wings extended, and the edge of his blade brighting in red, as the blood of the only thing that he ever cared about and that now was irremediably out of existence.

It seemed unreal. That in comparison to all of his life now lived that moment seemed to be bigger and more decisive than all the other decisions he had made put together. After all, what could an infant wish for before facing that moment? To bath or not to bath? To eat hay or bread…? To leave with his mother or remain with his father, taking care of the farm?

What? Did somepony had died? Was her somepony he knew? Was he really lying there, beside her, completely undone and powerless? Did he even care?

Now there it was, a demon, came from the deepest of his nightmares, and the form of the mare that had brought him to life bleeding the lasts drops of a life that had already gone away as time seemed to carelessly throw all of her person behind, tossed as if it were nothing in an instant. How picky yet swiftly death worked.

Yes, he snapped, she was somepony he knew. She was somepony he cared for. Even more, she was somepony he loved! She was the sun and stars of his world before a simple, unfortunated swing put her away. And he was pissed about it.

His brow turned into a frown, his teeth gritted, and a force he didn't knew he had started to fill his otherwise numbed muscles, granting him the power to stand up again. There was no kindness in his look anymore, or innocence, or anything that he could've had before. Now the only sentiment that shone in his eyelids was the desire, the need to terminate his opponent, the murderer of parents and brothers, the enemy of all ponykind: the Noctees.

The yellow eyes of the Night Guard followed him as he rose from the ashes that used to be his own body. Inside them was a mix between surprise and regret but he wasn't looking. There wasn't any rationality inside him, just a handful of wrath and pain. The Noctees looked like saying something, but he didn't listened, with a swift hoof he picked up the sword of Bow String and caught it between his teeth.

The blade was heavier than he expected, but he managed to compensate in time and outlined the best guard a filly could mount in such a desperate situation. The noctees tried to say something, but his words got lost in the heated air of the battle, unable to reach already deafened ears. In the end, seeing he wouldn't yield, he stood again in guard, showing his own curved sword ready for tasting living flesh again. No more words were spoken, and not another second were lost to mourning or feelings. The only thing that mattered now was the outcome. The only possible result to that grim anthological situation.

His muscles tensed once again, this time with the thrill of a fight, and his vision narrowed so that his objective was the only thing that occupied it. The Night Guard stood ready as well, his blue armor shining with the dancing flames around his obscured figure, and his wings still extended to emphasize the clear difference between their heights. His eyes were still doubtful, but in the light of the fire he could see them as they glow with the determination to remain victorious. Foal against Night Guard, never have being seen such a glorious scene with such wrong elements in display… But, then again, life is not always about proper accommodation, and what was was the only thing that could be, no more no less. But lets forget about this and focus in the matter at hand.

The battle decreased its sound, and both opponents leaned forward, preparing to charge. Fire was still burning around them, torching the air as if they were already living in hell, but he didn't mattered, the fire inside his chest was ten times more bright, and was burning in the very core of his soul.

And so, feeling the wrath of a deceived adventurer, a newborn warrior, and an orphaned son, Silver Sharper pressed his lungs like he never had done before to release his first true battle cry and charged towards his foe, determined to rise up victorious or never see the light of day again.

If he only knew that both thoughts would someday come to pass…

* * *

Inspiration:

Thorns - Demon Hunter

Not without a fight - Pillar


	2. Cub of the Night Guard

**Cub of the Night Guard**

_**Meet Sesham.**_

Tender, that was his last memory of her. Her wings wrapped around him, her body heat warming his', and a soft voice, as soft as the love of a mother can be, floating gently through the air. A fond memory that was made even more beautiful just before disappearing.

_The blue moon brights high and I'm at her feet,  
__One, two, three, four, seven, eight,  
__One, two, three, four, seven, eight.  
_

_I am still waiting for daylight to end,  
__One, two, three, four, seven, eight,  
__Four, five… six._

_I am still watching over your deep breath,  
__How it leaves your chest and brings a new life,  
__And I can't bring back silence to you._

Beautiful intonation. Nothing like a lullaby to end the day… If he only knew that it was their last, then perhaps he would have resisted her enchants more, but her voice, as it always had, was very compelling. His eyes struggled to remain open, but in the end their battle was futile. His eyelids were falling as if they'd never been opened. As if they would never wanted to.

_Just like a black cloud, I'm gone…_

More of her words, more of her voice. The sound was deafening, for it had absorbed the world. His ears were now feasting on every verse, on every line that left her lips as they hanged lower and lower and lower. There was nothing else of importance, nothing else to worry, just her voice. And she kept that steady chant, a prayer to call upon his most basic instinct to tame him. So successful it had proven to be, that at some points her words started to loose sense. He never needed it anyway. He knew the song by heart.

_I am still searching for something to dream,  
__But it always runs away,  
__If you look for it today._

_I am still trying to search from on high,  
__Without any hope,  
__To believe._

_Take back the pieces of pure wind and thought,  
__And give them for flowers to bloom._

Drowsiness was what followed. A sensation of immenseness that made his surroundings disappear. He was still conscious within his own thoughts, but this time the steps he was taking were closing to a translucent antechamber, the gates of a realm where all of the rest didn't really mattered. His own corner of sleep.

_Tangerine flowers of yellow and green,  
__Towering over your head,  
__Look at the mare with the moon in her eyes,  
__And she's gone._

_I've got a small cub with which I can charge,  
__All the pieces that form,  
__My whole softer side.  
_

_Its just a small cub that knows of me,  
__And though shrink in size,  
__There ain't better lad.  
_

_Search for your truth, you own strength, your own fate, and your love,  
__My young son._

_For I'm leaving in a cloud... of storm,  
__I carry my thoughts and I'm gone,  
__Just like a black cloud... of storm._

_Go search your own cloud and go…  
__Go search your own cloud and go…_

_The Day of the Night I'm gone,  
__I'm gone…  
__Like a cloud of storm…_

_**He was brought to life like all cubs from the Nocturnus Coven.**_

He fell asleep at last. His ears hanged down completely, and his breathing started to deepen. Preceded by a long breathe, his final entrance to slumber started to happen, and the youngling finally went limp. She watched from her distance, which couldn't be less than personal, as her cub fell asleep in her lap.

It felt strange, unreal if she wanted, to be there, at that precise moment. A part of her knew what was going to happen, but rationality, curiously, wasn't somehow the strongest one. A sensation of cold, voidness, was what reigned within her skull. The only sign of a heart so self-torn that denial was the only thing that was left in order to continue, to not break down. And she was an expert in denial. She's always been.

"Is it done?" asked a voice from the window.

She looked back to where it had come. At the entrance of the poor living room stood the grim figures of the Night Guards, flanking the exit from the outside like two birds of prey, ready to descend upon their unadverted target as the merciless tools they were. As they all always have done.

"Its done" she declared, standing up from her bed, leaving the sleeping child behind. She didn't tucked him, for it'd have no use. They were going to take him anyway. "You may proceed."

The Night Guards waited until she stepped outside to get in, both of them marching without doubt or remorse. Why would they? None of them have ever had those sentiments over thousands of years, not even her, when it came to service. It was only because of the greater good that Noctees had survived all these eras, and that, like with many other things, wouldn't be changed… At least-

"Guards" she called. The aforementioned, for respect, stopped and turned, directing their motionless eyes to her, who, on her side, couldn't be less spoken about.

For a moment doubt stood before her resolution, and all the fivers in her body wanted to rush back, but it was just that: a moment. The time to change hearts had gone even before she was conceived by her own parents, ages ago.

"Yes, Eren?" asked one of the Umbras, the one that had spoken before. The other one, a female, had just stared into the scene as if she were denying it as well, and it looked she was still like that.

She blinked as her thoughts regained their structure. It may have seemed like a day of meditation, but in reality there had only been a couple of seconds. And life goes on. "I just wanted you to know that he's the only one that made it" she said, clearing her head enough to speak. A futile plead, but was better than nothing. "…So you better take care of him" she sentenced, as if her words would have the same weight of those of the Council itself, though, perhaps, in that moment, they did.

Nothing else. No goodbyes or farewells, not even a tear. She took flight into the warm air of the cavern as the one who she left behind unconsciously crawled for some body heat, squirming with something that wasn't there anymore, like if he somehow knew as well that after that lullaby they would never see each other again.

For a foreigner this life may seem unfair, but for Umbras the Coven comes first. And if the Coven demands, their sweat, their blood and their lives… well, what is a soldier's worth?

_**And he was recruited at six, like all cubs from the Nocturnus Coven.**_

No one would intervene, no one would speak a word, no one would even care. The only ones for whom the issue really mattered were the two guards that were left standing just past the entrance. Both of them following the mother with their eyes as she flew through the darkness until her flapping fused with countless others, and her physical existence was nothing else than a memory, lost forever until they were gone.

"Care to explain me?" asked the female, apparently now out of her stupor.

"Excuse me?" turned the other, taken by surprise.

"Her" she nodded in her general direction. "What was that of 'the only one' about?"

"Oh, that…" he gasped as his gaze turned gloomy. "She had other cubs before."

"Really?" now her eyes were set upon the place where she had left, a twinge of curiosity and concern peeking behind them. "What happened to them?"

He became even grimmer. "The same as her companion. She lost them."

Her gaze suddenly turned to him, surprise portrayed in her face as well as dismay, as if he'd tell her that she had murdered them herself. "Oh, my… That…" she nodded to the bed. He nodded as well. "Oh holy goddess!"

"Don't pronounce her name in vain" he sanctioned, nonchalant, as he headed for the bed. "I've never asked for the purposes of the Night before, even when they may be hidden to our understanding" he looked upon the sleeping cub as he turned over a little more, trying to profit from his comfort before it was taken away from him. "We both have seen many deaths, Eren and I" he continued, just watching the child. "And from everything I know, the only thing that I can take for certain is that, out of the others, if he lived, then he must have a purpose."

"A purpose?" she stood beside him, imitating his actions. "Of what kind?"

"I don't know" he shrugged. "That is up for the goddess to decide" another roll, this time accompanied by a soft kick. "After all, if he wouldn't, why bother?"

The cub rolled once again, then finally settled. A smile growing wither in her face as he had at last found his so longed comfort.

The male guard was the one to snap. "Well, we came here to fulfill a duty" he sighed. Turning away from the bed. "You take him" he told her.

"What? Why me?" she turned as well.

"Because you're the careful one here" he smiled sideways. "...and I don't wanna wake him."

She glared at him for this, but ultimately obeyed, closing her hooves gently around the youngling. "Come on, now, little one…" she whispered as she lifted him to her back. "Everything's going to be fine, I promise..."

* * *

_**Because Sesham, like all cubs, was born to be a Night Guard.**_

He woke up to a sensation of discomfort, a feeling so familiar yet so unsettling that not even his deepest slumber could withstand it. Something had changed, something that he couldn't tell. He twisted and rolled in his bed, but it just couldn't do. It wasn't the softness he was accustomed to, the sheets that used to embrace his body and keep it warm. Everything was _different_.

He opened his eyes, hoping to find the problem, but what would be his surprise when he found out that not only his bed had changed, but the very world around him. The four walls that used to be his humble menage had become suddenly a far larger room, extending from left to right for at least five times as it were, augmenting their height and width in a way that he'd never aspired to see himself duelling into, and filled with new faces that he'd never stared at.

Where was he?

Along his bed were perfectly accommodated rows of berths that both flanked and towered his', now that he noticed, from one end to another. Each one perfectly tended, each one with the same uncomfortably brown sheets and mattresses, each one of them with their personal occupant, or at least someone whom clearly belonged to, since the other "inhabitants" were hanging around, chattering, exploring, or simply going by. Some others were still on their beds, looking at the nothingness like him, but those were few.

And that was it, nothing but a daily life episode in an unknown hall that had came to receive him to his vigil, completely regardless of his state of mind. Everything was so peaceful and relaxed that he wouldn't dare to question the order of things, overtaken by an implicit motion to blend with it for a moment longer.

But if everything looked so ordinary, then why did it felt so wrong? It may have seemed to be normal in the surface, but for him everything was somehow so out of order that it was like if they were in another page, another reality, and another time that he obviously had lost track of somehow. It just didn't felt real. Suddenly even he just didn't felt real.

At first he was confused, not knowing how to act or even how to behave, or perhaps not wanting to know as ideas tried to form inside his head. He tried hard to concentrate, but that unsettling sensation had apparently disabled his capacity to think straight. What remained was some kind of black watery screen where his thoughts were slowly drowning, and from which nothing could be seen through save for the blackness.

Or that's what he thought.

"Hey, are you new?" a voice broke him from his thoughts. Beside him had appeared another cub, who was peeking from the upper side of his bunk bed. "Did they took you too?"

Now, there may have been many other ways to approach a shocked youngling, some more effective than others, but in that moment, when the words finished entering his conscience, suddenly the neurons that hadn't fall directly into the abyss formed their harrowing connections, and in an instant the realization of everything that was going on there dawned upon him. The war, the Coven, the Night Guard, his mother… just too many disclosures for a simple kid's mind to assimilate at the same time.

Obviously, he broke down.

"NOOOO!" his yell of absolute terror cut through the atmosphere of the place like a rock tossed against glass. Everyone jumped to the sudden scream, but by the moment all eyes turned to the source of the sound, he had already jumped off his bed and was heading for the nearest end of the room as he cried. "Where is my mother!? Where is my mother!? I WANNA GO HOME!"

In a second tears were raining down his cheeks, and his breathing had became unsteady, cycling from sobbing to the repeated inhalations that his body demanded to keep its frantic rhythm of activity. Inside him the black marsh that used to be his mind had suddenly bursted, turned into a sea of fire as all of his psyche was torn apart by the sudden and cold fracture of a panic attack.

He reached the nearest wall and looked for any entrances, but sadly he had mistaken. The exit was in the other end. He tried to fix it, and headed for the other side of the room, but by the moment he turned, all the other cubs had closed over and were now massing around him, preventing him to return.

He didn't care. His mind was so overexcited that nothing could get it to its senses. He was going to get out of there by any means. So, with a loud growl of anger and frustration he charged against the mass of younglings that were blocking his way to the door. Most of them, upon seeing him turning violent, dodging him or flying away from his reach.

_**He was bred to be what his Coven needed him to be.**_

He pressed on, seeing how everyone else fled in terror from his charge, and for a moment he thought that he'd made it, but in truth he had disregarded his obstacles too quickly. Before he gave another step a strange hoof, turned into a fist, stomped against his face without any warning, connecting a punch so perfect that the counterforce was enough to stop his advance, and even to send him in the other direction. Screams of surprise and terror filled the air, but to him everything was just a swirl of noise and movement floating chaotically around his eyes and ears as he rolled in the air before violently colliding with the floor.

"Shut up will ya?" screeched his attacker, a few steps away. He was another cub that was breathing heavily due to the effort he had put in his fist. "You will drag the guards with your whining, and I'm not spending the night outside because of you!"

He remained in the floor, not able to move or think because of his state. His eyes were wide open and his jaw had just dropped. All of his nerves were stiff as if they've received a cold shower. Pain was a thorn in his cheek, where a bruise was tarting to form. Did he had just got punched?

His thoughts were circling the empty void that the fist had opened in him when the other cub came closer. "Hey, did you listen?" his face was still threatening, but this time a twinge of worry had appeared underneath his factions. Not enough to tell for sure, but just so it could be noticed. "A-are you okay?"

He slowly snapped as his senses returned to rationality one by one, loosening up his muscles, and allowing his breath to enter his chest again, since he hadn't breathe since he hit the floor. To the fore came the vision of his attacker, still menacing, but this time more restrained, just waiting for him to say something.

He instinctively crouched in his place as the words began to gulp on his tongue. To speak, even not coherently, seemed like a nearly impossible task through the lump that had just formed in his throat. Only by willpower he was able to articulate. "I… I…"

"What was that?" the other came closer. "I can't catch you, what are you saying?"

His words readied to spill like a punch from his part. He knew what was going to happen beforehoof, but he didn't care. He somehow wanted it to happen anyway. "I wanna go home!"

There, he'd said it. Before he knew anything else, a hoof had grabbed him by the neck and pulled him up. When he realized he was facing eye to eye with the other cub, anger and violence igniting in his eyes once again.

"What did you say?" he asked again, marking every word like a menace as if he were already beating him.

"I… said… I said I wanna go home!" he cried again.

Everything turned still, the weight of reality fallen on the scene. At first it looked like nothing was going to happen, but then, before his very eyes, the free hoof of his opponent suddenly turned into a fist again, and raised for attack. All faces returned to their tense expressions that prevented them from moving as they were going to witness the continuation of that excruciation. He, on his way, didn't closed his eyes, nor did he moved a muscle agains it. He had stated his intentions clearly, and as far as he could tell the other one could punch him as he wished, he didn't care anymore...

"Hey, you leave him alone jerk!" shouted a voice from the mob.

All faces turned, and all eyes widened even more as the new contestant stepped inside the fight. He, in his resignation, watched with awe how the fist of his bully was suddenly stopped midway by a third hoof, that not only prevented him from sending his punch, but countered it as well. The next thing both knew was that a female cub, with more fire in her eyes even than the second one, had stepped in the place of his victim and had planted a frontal kick on his belly, taking his breath as she pushed him away.

"Get off him!" she shrieked as she stood between him and her opponent, then, to everyone's surprise, turned to him, who had fallen again to the floor. "Are you alright?" she asked kindly.

He stood still in awe. Her appearance and the action were so sudden that he still didn't knew what to think, far less what to say. Perhaps he projected a strong sentiment of relief, because a smile started to grow wither in her features as she watched him.

_**He was taught to fight.**_

"What is… wrong with you!?" the other one stood up, struggling to catch air. "You're gonna… gonna… Huh!" more gasping to recover breath. "You're gonna stand for that wimp?"

"What do you care?" she snapped. "He just lost his mother, his family… like all of us" she turned to everyone around, most of them which looked to be sympathetic or dodged her gaze, even the one who had aggrieved him suddenly seemed like being struck deep inside. "What would you do if you found out that everything you know have been stripped away from you? Huh?" now it was her who had stood face to face with him. "WHAT?"

The cub jumped back as if she had waved her fist against him again, but said nothing, his eyes clearly stated that she had successfully intimidated him. In the end, not knowing what to say, he just looked away in shame, his face turned into a bitter mask of suppressed anger.

"That's what I thought" she scolded, then turned to the rest. "Anyone else has a problem with it?"

The mob backed away, both in shame and fear. So great had being her impression in them.

"Good!" she continued. "Now get to your own business!"

Everyone dispersed, pouched by her fierce words, and her even fiercer expression. When all were gone she finally turned to the cub, which still lied in the floor, not quite believing anything he could see.

"Are you okay?" she asked again, her gentle tone regained after that display of aggressiveness. "Don't worry, they won't bite you, they are just scared" she extended her hoof to help him up. "…But still they'll walk over you if you let them" she glanced at where the other one had left, who had climber into his bunk and wasn't moving anymore.

He still stared at her with amusement, like if he hadn't bought what happened completely, but after a second snapped and reluctantly took her hoof, feeling how strong her grip was. She smiled fondly and pulled him up with ease, like if he had no weight. When both of them were in their fours he noticed that they were almost the same height, and, despite the fact that she had proven to be stronger, about the same complexion. It wasn't rare for Umbras to look alike, even if their gender would be different, but in that moment he was deeply amazed as to how similar they were, almost to the point of being a reflexion of the other.

"I'm Taly" she continued, intuiting that he wouldn't speak no word. "Nice to meet you."

He thought of an answer, anything, to say, but his own nervousness had taken away his parlance. "S-Sesham" he muttered sheepishly, slightly breaking through the word blockade that had formed beneath his lips. "Thank you."

"You're welcome!" she greeted. "Now, can you please give me my hoof back?"

Sesham suddenly realized that he was still clinging to her hoof and immediately let her go.

"Oh! I-I'm sorry!" he stepped back. "Its just… I-I just wanted to thank you, for what you did."

"Its nothing, and you're welcome, again" she said as she walked back to her own bed. "Next time be careful about what you do, and if you have trouble again just call me, alright?"

"Y-yes, of course!" he contested, his own smile forming over his face. "Thank you!"

_**To know that the only thing in the world was his duty to his Coven, and nothing else.**_

"Well, ain't that just pretty?" suddenly spoke a strange voice from the other side of the room.

All looks turned again to find a Night Guard, standing with other two, coming from the end of the barracks. Then suddenly all relief went flying through the window. A death silence was casted upon the scene not because their presence, since it was to be expected, but because what it meant. And the aspect of the officer didn't help much either.

All Umbras from the Coven looked pretty much alike in adulthood too, with brown coats, and grayish manes, and the two soldiers that were flanking the one looked just as any other average adult Umbra, with their postures straight and their eyes fixed on the front. The leader, on the other way, was a much more intimidating vision. His fur was grayish black and his mane, or what could be seen, was as clear as the snow in the mountain side. His gesture was frowned, and his amber armor notched in the points where enemy blades had tried and failed to reach his meat. His face was covered in scars of his no doubt violent past, and he had half ear missing. His eyes were two dead spots of black where nothing could be seen save for the extensive potential to hate, to inflict grief…

Sesham stared at him without blinking while they neared their distance. Besides the fact that he obviously wasn't from the same Coven, for a moment he wondered if they all were going to end like that when they were older.

"So…" continued the officer as he closed to the place where everything had happened, showing how tall he was in comparison with the simple cubs. "I was sent here to clarify a ruckus" he stepped in the center of the looks, raising his voice for all to hear. "Anyone care to tell me what was the fuss all about, or will I have to pick volunteers?"

The question was simple, though coming from him it hit everyone like if he had just threatened to eat them if they'd talk. Lest to say that none dared to speak in the presence of such an intimidating hulk. Sesham was amongst the scared as well, not daring to say a word of the incident for fear of him fixing his terrifying eyes on him.

But his common sense started to clear its way through his fright. Now this was serious. Not only would the entire troop be punished if they didn't snap out, but it could turn against him as well. How long would it take for that other cub to realize that he could talk first. How long before he starts messing with him again? Taly could fend him off this time, but she wouldn't be there to protect him all the time… No, it had to be done, no matter how much his insides wanted to tell him otherwise. He was about to speak up when his benefactor stepped out first.

"I-it was my fault, sir" Taly suddenly spoke, drawing the attention of the officer like a spotlight over her. "I saw a fight and I tried to break through, but I couldn't manage before it was too late…" she briefly gazed upon Sesham. "I'm sorry, sir."

The officer showed no emotion. If anything his expression turned harder. "A fight?" he asked as he neared Taly, not looking anywhere else rather than her. "How was that?"

Taly stood her ground at first, but couldn't manage to withstand the whole attention of the veteran over her. The next time she spoke, she was stammering. "Y-you see… I… I was seeing this recruit being bullied and… and… I though…"

"… that you couldn't stand there and do nothing" he completed, still motionless. "Well, thank you for your honesty, cadet" he turned to the rest. "A fine example to be followed, aren't I right? To act on one's own…" That didn't felt nearly as good as it ought to. It looked like he would leave tally alone, but before she went out of his reach, he extended his wing and dragged her along. "Would you mind to point me the implicated, cadet?" he asked her, but there was nothing comforting in his voice.

Taly obeyed, and reluctantly pointed her hoof to Sesham, who by the time he acknowledged had already the horrible look of the officer on him. The officer made a gesture to the other Night Guards, who had remained in their posts all the time, and came closer to him, his height ever growing until they were facing each other.

"Is this the one?" he asked again to Taly.

She nodded, but not without looking at Sesham with concern. Sesham was about to say something when he suddenly felt the hoof of the officer grab him by the jaw and start to turn his head without niceness. Even through the metal touch of the battle horseshoe, he could feel that there was nothing soft in the hoof that was bearing him like if he were an object for study. Too much time of holding a sword, or a halberd's shaft.

The officer inspected the beaten side of his face without blinking, just staring at every single inch of his bruised face. "I see…" he sighed as he let him go.

"It's normal for some freshcubs to be bullied in platoons recently recruited" spoke one of the guards. "Its just part of cadet's life-"

"And when did I asked for your opinion, soldier?" the officer cut him without turning, then turned to Taly again. "Did you do this to him?" she immediately shook her head. "Then who did?"

A hoof pointed in the direction of the other cub, who had just watched everything from his own bed. Sesham followed the thrilling sight of the officer to his next objective, and despite he couldn't watch his face directly, he formed himself an idea of what should have looked like, as he saw with morbid amusement how the expression of the accused turned from shocked to one of horror.

Perhaps the next victim would have ran away if it weren't because before he realized the size of the trouble he were in the officer was already on his way to his bunk, nothing even near to relief in his features. Somehow, seeing him marching with that aggressive pace, Sesham had a bad feeling about this.

_**But was he?**_

"Hold her" the officer handled Taly to his escort upon reaching the bed, then turned to the other one. "You, kiddo!" he called with a thundering voice, making the adverted jump. "On your fours, cadet, state your name!"

The youngling found himself struggling with his surprise to follow orders, but in the end he compelled, frightened to death just to stand before him. "B-Besw… Besw Harn."

"Besw Harn, sir!" the officer ordered as he leaned a hoof on his shoulder, grabbing him tightly.

"Besw Harn, sir!" he exclaimed, trembling under his grasp.

"You think you're tough, cadet? You think you're apt to outstand this whole troop? Do you want to become a Night Guard!?"

Besw looked like didn't know which one to answer, but apparently his nervousness spoke for him. "Sir… yes sir!"

If he only knew what he was up to… But he, and no one perhaps, really didn't see it coming.

"THEN SAY IT LIKE IF YOU MEAN IT!" with his powerful shout, the free hoof of the officer had risen up and had slapped Besw in plain face, making a sound so loud that even the other Night Guards winced upon seeing it, lest to say the expressions of horror in the other cub's faces. Besw had tried to step away, but found himself unable to as the grip of his tormentor was firm. The officer carried on. "Again, recruit, DO YOU WANT TO BE A NIGHT GUARD!?"

Besw was equally shocked from the hit, but he managed to answer, squealing for the pain. "Sir, yes si-" another slap, just as hard as the last one but in the other side.

"Now, does a Night Guard acts against his Coven!?"

"Sir, no sir!" this time he waited for Besw to finish before lending another one.

"Does a Night Guard neglects the needs of his people!?"

"Sir, no sir!" another one. His eyes were starting to water, but Besw was able to contain it… for now.

"Does a Night Guard would commit felony against his own!?" this time he didn't wait until he respond, and slapped him anyway. "DOES HE!?"

Besw had to fight through his sobbing, but still he answered. "S-SIR, NO SIR!"

The present stood in thrilling silence. The act was still horrifying, true, but this time the resilience that had demonstrated Besw, even though he was at the edge of breaking, and with his face red from the beating, had inspired something closer to respect from everyone, even from Sesham, who was feeling sorry for the punishment that he had to undergo because of his own lack of self control. The only one who didn't look like encouraged after a second was his punisher himself, who, if all, seemed more vexed at his still defiant look.

"Are you toying with me?" he asked in a threatening manner. Besw was about to answer when he began to slap him repeatedly. "Do you not know your place, recruit, or are you stupid enough to stand up agains me!?" every word was accompanied by its own strike, and by the end of it the frightening veteran had already slapped him at leas ten times before closing. But the worst was yet still to come.

He finished his sentence, and his beating, with a slap stronger than the others, that struck him in the right side of his face almost like if he had punched him directly. The hit resonated throughout the whole building, and Besw crashed over the floor as the officer let him go, his eyes closed and his limbs limp, completely knocked out from that last punch. Everyone gasped in awe, and even the two Night Guards didn't know wether to intervene or to stand firm. In any case, they bend forward, like if even they wouldn't be in accordance with what he did, but the officer himself wasn't finished handing out punishments.

"Hopefully that'll put you in your place" he sentenced to the unconscious cub, as Besw seemed to slowly return to conscience, showing to everybody, to their relief, that he wasn't dead. The officer then turned to Taly. "And you…" the addressed crouched in fear at his call. "Since you are so worried to handle the affairs of this troop on your own you can take the first watch" he turned to the guard that held her. "Watch this cadet and report to me if she falls asleep, are we understood?"

The soldier, regaining conscience of who he was, stood straight again and fixed his eyes to the front. "Sir, yes sir!" he remained firm, but extended a wing to embrace Taly, and from his eyes allowed a sympathetic look to peek down to her. If the officer would've seen it he'd reprehend him as well, but, fortunately for them, he had turned to the others.

_**Perhaps not.**_

"The strength of the Night Guard is his troop, and the strength of the troop are its Night Guards!" he spoke so everyone could hear. "If we are to prevail we must remain as one. Divisions will tear us; selfishness will hinder us" he gazed at every respective cub while talking. "…And weakness…" he looked upon Sesham, still with fire in his eyes. "Weakness will drag us down the slope of misery until we're nothing but filled graves" he turned to the others again. "If that would have happened, then your Coven wouldn't stand today, and our people, our race, wouldn't even exist! Do you understand what that means? The sacrifices we've made in order to ensure the continuity of our people?" he waited for a moment to let his words settle int their minds. When he determined that enough time had passed, he turned to the exit an proceeded to leave with the remaining Night Guard behind. "Then off to sleep! You'll need to rest, for tomorrow your real education begins."

_**Yet, war is something interesting.**_

He stood in the doorframe as Taly and her escort moved to stand firm at each side of it, then looked upon the rest of the cubs, who were all turning the lights off and sinking into their beds with mechanical procedure, save for Besw, who was more crawling into his sheets, fighting his exhaustion and pain at the same time. The officer stood like that, vigilant, as, for a moment, a sinister smile grew on his features, like if some dark thought had come across his mind, but whatever it was he kept it to himself. He just turned before leaving to the guard beside the door.

"Tomorrow, first hour, all formed" and then he went away, getting lost in the world outside that for those cadets was going surely to be prohibited for most of their cubhood.

Shadow fell over the room. From her advantageous position, Taly could see the perfectly accommodated beds as they stood with its occupants, silent and unshaken, except one; the only one that now worried her, because, though at first it couldn't be heard, Besw's silent crying gradually became stronger until his sobbing was in every pair of ears of the inhabitants of that place. Taly stood firm as much a she could, but unlike her companion she just didn't had the preparation to ignore a little cub's heartbreaking cry of pain and help. Even though she had bared witness to his brutal disciplining, she still could only imagine what he could be going through right now, and that was the worst part, not knowing how much grief he was withstanding, and even if Besw was already a moron at her eyes, no one deserved to be treated like that, specially not a child.

"Its alright" suddenly spoke the guard beside her, not looking anywhere but the front. "You can go and comfort him. I won't tell the captain, I promise" Taly turned to him, puzzled. It took a minute for her to acknowledge who was he really talking to. "Go" he prompted again. "I won't go anywhere."

Taly doubted for a second. She knew she had her orders and had all the intention not to disobey them. But on the other hoof… "T-thank you, sir" she said as she broke her position.

"Don't mention it. Just make this night easier" he sighed.

Taly walked along the line of bunks, moving closer to the right one. She knew that the others were awake as well, but wouldn't dare to stand up for fear of being punished, and after seeing the barbaric beating of Besw, with a good reason. After all no one with a conscience would sleep with those inconsolable laments rattling through the air.

Taly stood before his bed for a moment, and was ready to get closer when she suddenly spotted something else. At first it wasn't clear, but when her eyes adjusted the surprise didn't fir in her expression. Beside the headboard of the bed was standing Sesham as well, leaned over the sunken form of Besw as he mumbled unintelligibly to his ear.

Did he just got there?

"It's okay" he was whispering. "It's okay, just… relax."

Taly stood dumbstruck as he saw how Sesham comforted Besw, even though he was the one that had hit him not even twenty minutes ago. Still, he narrowed his nuzzle to where surely lied his ear and mumbled. Taly couldn't catch it, but it surely must have been something to calm him, because Besw's crying, as progressively as it had risen, lowered until it became nothing more than a whisper, and then finally disappeared.

Silence felt like a relief now, and even though Taly couldn't actually hear it, she could swear that there was a general sigh of liberation from all the other mouths as well. Sesham, seeing that he was probably asleep, stepped away, and set way to his bed until he found Taly just by turning. Then he petrified upon seeing her, standing at the end of his way, shrinking in what surely was embarrassment. Taly smiled to him again, but this time he didn't returned it.

_**And maybe, just maybe, a useless recruit as he was could someday become handy…**_

It looked like he wouldn't talk, so she took the initiative. "That was amazing, what you did!" she said in a mutter, loud enough for him to hear. "How did you do it?"

Sesham seemed to shrink even more before responding. "I-I… sang. To him" he contested in the same way. "My mother used to do it when I got sick or cried a lot. She used to calm me…" he inspired deeply, and looked like was about to cry, but he didn't.

"I'm… sorry to hear that" she continued. "…But I know what you mean. My mother used to sing to me too."

Sesham rose his head to this, his figure reassuming its actual size, and looked at her in a more sympathetic way. "Really?"

"Sure! She had a beautiful voice. Did your mom was a good singer too?"

This seemed to touch him deep, as he lowered the volume of his voice markedly. "Yes… she was…" he wiped something from his eye. "I guess then… that we are really the same, you know?"

"Really? How so?"

His confidence slipped a little more, but he talked anyway. "Well, we're all… sad."

"Sad?" she puzzled. "Why?"

"I don't know" he shrugged. "We'll never see our parents again, talk to them, or be with them. And they'll… they just will never see us again. I don't know why is this, but I don't like it… Yet… I can't do anything to stop it. It's just the way that things are, aren't they? And we have no vote here because we're just-"

"Cubs?"

"…Lonely" he completed. "That's why we're sad. Because we feel alone" his eyes matched with Taly's, and in that moment she completely witnessed his point.

He was right, in both of them were a black emptiness, and not only because of the dark. There was a sensation of abandonment, of resignation that had sinked in the bottom of their souls, and that Taly had just realized that she had just buried, like a treasure too beautiful yet too painful to contemplate again.

Both remained like that for a second, then split. Too long had been the contact for them to withstand it for now. Taly opened the way, and Sesham walked to pass her. She watched him with a concerned expression, but he didn't seem to notice until the last second, when he unexpectedly stood at her side, still facing the direction of his bed.

Another deep breathe. "Its nothing, really" he mumbled. "Only that… Is something that I thought just now… You don't have to give it importance, and if you don't want me to talk to you again, I'll-"

Suddenly a wing wrapped around his neck, and held him tight. Not with strength or dourness, but with the care and touch that he already was resigned to have lost, and that he already missed. A friendly heat that once had promised him that nothing in the world could go wrong again. An illusion of something that suddenly had become so distant.

_**As handy as his fate made him.**_

"I won't leave you alone" she whispered with a shiver in her voice. "…Never!"

So familiar. It was so familiar that… Sesham gave another exhalation, but even he couldn't resist to be hit that deep within and he broke to tears as well. Not crying, since it would be the same liability, but silently watering, letting the salty drops slide down his face and into Taly's wings, rolling like rain until they reach the floor. Taly was doing the same, since he felt a watery sensation roll down his neck, where she had leaned her head, but he was okay with it. For as long as that moment'd last, they were suddenly something more than just one recruit and another. There is a bond that only two closest beings can share, even if they are too young to notice it.

Both broke apart after that, each one headed for their personal night. Each one with eyes as red as the pain that they had just let go. Sesham looked once again to Taly for a second as she made her way to the entrance, but not this time with bashfulness or fear, but with apprehension, with brotherly care, for he was now staring into the figure of one of the best friends he'd awkwardly made in a day. Perhaps it won't be so bad, he thought as he crawled into his own bed. Perhaps… this will be better than I thought…

And then he sank into his own mind for as long as he could rest that night.

_**And that is, precisely, what this story is about.**_

* * *

Helo, its me again: the author, yay!

I felt the need to communicate you that if you've scrolled down to this point then I can have a guess at what you'd be thinking. Yes, this chapter is looooong, but due to the scheming of the story, I also need to tell you that, although is planned to be few chapters, each one of them is at least as long, if not longer, than this one. So, in spite of my need to make this story appealing, and not spoil the narrative or the story development with long segments of display, I feel its only fair to ask you:

Is this length for the chapters alright, or do I need to make them shorter?

Any response, please let me know of your decision anyway you want/can/will.

Thank you beforehand for your consideration.

Sincerely:SIMIO

* * *

Inspiration:

"Like a cloud of storm": Caracol (Featured/translated) - Muna Zul

I don't wanna miss a thing - Irosmith

Es hora de marchar - Mago de Oz

Responsible for - Snake Like Charm

Hubris - Living Syndication

Running up that hill - Placebo's cover


	3. The Plight of the North, part 1

_Seventeen years later, in Agryte*._

Wind from the heights soared with a cool embrace through the gray matter of the sky. Clouds of white and the background blue had fused into an homogeneous mass that were covering everything in sight with its continued presence, bringing the sun to the land below like a dream of light. It didn't took much cleverness to know that it would be raining.

Today wasn't a special day to behold, for the luminousness of the sun was anything else but inviting, and the mountain's shadows projected a grayish blackness towards the fields. Doors were shut, and window panes lied closed. No music could be heard from within the taverns. It was like if a decree had being casted against anyone who'd dare to step outside of their homes, but the reason behind the reluctancy that advised against going out was not only because of the weather, but for a different kind of storm. One that was yet to be formed.

* * *

"Order!" broke her voice into the air like a screeching thunder over the soft rain. "Silence, we bid thou, by the Great Alicorn*!"

The room was bursting with noise, the chattering from dozens of voices as they battled to win a reason, but when the command of the queen was heard that restless tide of arguments and disputation began to diminish until it completely settled, letting an expectative silence in its place. The court paused its activity, and the eyes of all the delegates and other less noble characters centered into the only mare that had the power to make it shut with tacit unanimity.

At the end of the great royal hall, seating between the other rulers of the tribes, queen Jewel Crown straightened her position when she acknowledged the effect that her words have had on the assembly.

"Congressmares and stallions, lets focus on the matter at hoof, shall we?" she said when silence fell at last. "Our attendance may not be complete, but we decree that at least is enough to deliberate. Newcomers shall be put at day, and the missing have made their choice. Let us not delay our council no more, for enough time hast been lost to the mattered already."

Jewel Crown was young for her charge, so it was spoken, but not less capable. A mare pegasus in the glory of her age with a glowing cyan mane and an any less resplendent ember coat of fur, all wrapped in royal attires. Her emerald eyes were those of a ruler, no more no less, unyielding, unblinking and unsettling. She made other headponies seem less majestic when stood beside her radiance even despite the fact that they had the overall same status, and anypony that'd saw her face would immediately tell that she knew she had the power and she wasn't afraid to use it as the head of estate of the council of the Three Tribes and the land of Agryte, and everything not without a reason.

Her voice, when wasn't shouting, was as imposing and majestic as her person, a mix between magnanimity and solemnity with a trampling intonation, like the stomping of a buffalo tribe in plain charge. It was something that modern speakers would find nothing less than difficult to maintain, but that she performed with so ease that anypony who wasn't accustomed would find himself agreeing with everything she said, even if he wouldn't have a reason to.

So, under the vigilant and expecting gaze of her court, she proceeded. "Much have we dreaded this moment, for it has come the day when news of war are brought upon our ears. Us and our sons have lived in this fine land of Agryte in prosperity for many generations, but now the time has come for us to make a choice. Thou prelates and thou nobles, and thou who rule over our subjects with justice and grace, the moment is nigh to hear the cries of the hapless, may the Great Alicorn have them in her glory."

"May the Great Alicorn have them in her glory" chorused the room, having already been hypnotized by her.

That was the talent of Jewel Crown, just another proof of her indisputable power. "And so, willing to hear the plight of our sisters we ask, why hast ye came here now in thy time of need and not before?" she leaned her head in her hoof in a meditative way. "Has king Diamond Glass finally surrendered his pride enough to ask for the aid of the Three Tribes?"

Before her, and standing in the front of the court, the subjects at matter shared a concerned look for a moment, a perfect portrait of grief and regret exposed in their features. The heralds of the Crystal Empire, a blue unicorn mare and an acre earth stallion, looked reluctant to tell, but after a moment they responded.

"King Diamond Glass is… dead, your highness" spoke the colt, as coldly as his voice allowed him. "And queen Ruby is convalescent."

The entire room stood immediately dumbstruck. Even Jewel Crown, who was the more magnanimous, rose her head by the shock.

The other leaders may have asked the same question, but given the status of the mare, she spoke first. "How?"

"Slain in battle, your majesty" said the mare. "By the sword of our enemy, much I'm afraid."

"The Nocturnus and their offspring have put him to an end" continued the colt. "And after that we've just know of sorrow and mourn until our queen got sick."

"Since the moment of her illness, queen Ruby has been ever weaker, even to the point of loosing her ability to stand on her fours… and to speak."

This caused discomposure across the attendants, eyes opening wide, and gasps of horror and awe carried the contained breath through the air as a scrub of indiscreet mutters began to grow amongst the commoners at the terrible news. Even the heads of estate seemed deeply touched… all but one.

"From her bed, queen Ruby has sent us to communicate the news to our sisters of the south, before she went ever silent" continued the mare. "...Our road from then was nothing but hardships and misadventures as we've gone through many dangers and witnessed the suffering of our people."

Jewel Crown stood unblinking, yet not less meditative. She didn't say a word, so the stallion continued. "Please, hear our request for help, sisters of the Three Tribes. Show us your mercy so we, the Crystal Empire, could be in debt with the nobility of your hearts and show you our gratitude in the future!"

Both ponies knelt in reverence. The room was once more silent, still in a void between respectful and expectant. Jewel Crown remained silent as well, not leaving her meditative gesture or lifting up her face from behind her hooves, which she had crossed in from of her to further exemplify her disposition. The heralds broke her reverence when they felt that the moment had enlarged too long, but still remained on their knees, and even the other rulers turned slightly to her in search of a posture that they didn't find. For the moment she wouldn't give them any. To command is an active duty, but sometimes, just sometimes, ruling is not about action…

"Preoccupying, most preoccupying indeed!" spoke Dandelion, queen of the unicorns, after that while. "Our heart hangs low in spite of such grim notifications, yet we can't find but hard to believe the crisis that our sisters are going through. Rest assure, our Crystal Ponies, that thy request won't be ignored, so that we show our distant siblings the spirit of our care, but to give a hasten resolution is something that falls out of the question. For a final answer further pondering is needed."

There was some nods from the unicorns in the multitude, and words of agreement floated from within the attendance, but they were few. The other thing that also took flight out from the non-unicorn attendants were the sighs of frustrated exasperation. Jewel Crown smiled slightly, but didn't say nothing. Oh, Dandelion, so manipulable, she seemed to say inside her. No wonder why she use to have such a loyal counselor at her side… and in her bed.

"We are at your disposal, your majesty" contested the stallion, bowing again.

Next to speak was Bedrock, chairman of the earth ponies. "My deepest regrets for the death of Diamond Glass. He was a fine ruler. Proud, but just at last" he said, raising a surprised look from the delegates at not using the royal we. That was the real Bedrock; one of the few decent sovereigns that counterbalanced the pegasus' power. "…But even though my people shares our mourn with yours, I have to ask, what kind of aid would the Crystal Empire need, if it isn't a contribution that yet could blanch in comparison to your immensely resources' stocks superiority? Because making accounts I can't help but to wonder, have the Crystal Empire lost somehow its assets, or has it finally exhausted its treasury?"

"Our arks are fine, your majesty, I promise" spoke the mare, gulping before continuing. "But ever since our beloved king's demise, the Noctees have damaged our infrastructure to the point where our surplus is starting to deplete rapidly. Our farms and mines are late or overdue, and without the command of king Diamond Glass there is no way of successfully stopping the Noctees from raiding our shipments. We're very afraid that if this situation continues our production would deplete until we pass the point of sustainability for the conflict. And if that happens…"

"Then its just a matter of time, your majesty" muttered the colt.

More whispering. This time not only Jewel Crown was meditative, but Bedrock as well. Only Dandelion was the one that seemed disbelieved. Just as expected.

"By our goodness! How have ye came through such difficulties without yielding?"

"It sure wasn't easy, your majesty" the mare took another bow. "But as long as we get the comfort of a promise, this tough journey wouldn't have been in vain."

"And what kind of promise is that exactly?" asked Bedrock again, frowning slightly. "Because the way I see it there are so many things that a kingdom can secure for its allies, like money, assets, supplies, materials… Troops?" his voice became slightly sizzler in that last word, almost as if he didn't wanted to pronounce it.

Jewel Crown still remained meditative.

"What a splendid idea!" continued Dandelion. "An armed expedition! That is a wonderful motion! After all, who better for solving problems than problem solvers themselves?" more nods and sighs. The heralds, in their way, shared a concerned look. "Why haven't we thought of that before? After all, ye hast crossed half of this cruel world for aid of thy sisters, so it would only seem fair that our royal persons would agree upon bestowing into thee the power to smite thy foes with the swords of our brave Royal Guards… Although we must admit that this wasn't first of our like, but after everything that has been exposed we also believe that the power of a draft would be-"

"Absolutely out of the question!" cut her another voice from the other side of the room.

A general gasp of surprise and indignation rose like a tidal wave, filling the four walls to the roof in a matter of a second, and even the heralds looked as surprised as if somepony had just popped out of nowhere and slapped the unicorn queen in the face, which was pretty much the expression of Dandelion in that moment. At last, something that widened Jewel Crown's smile.

Entering the by the end of the hall, the only excuse for the pegasus queen power was gazing at the multitude of bureaucrats as they opened way to let him pass. At first all looks had placed upon him like if he were not welcome, but after a quick realization the gazes of fury rapidly turned into humbleness and regret. With his wings and horn held high, or perhaps higher, as his status as prince demanded, Righteous Ire wasn't by far a less imposing vision than his mother. He was a head taller than everypony in the room and his body was well developed. His eyes were those of his progenitor added to a permanent slight frown, which perfectly described the implications of his name. His mane was green like the land in plain summer, and his fur grayish blue, the color of the fog in open sky. In his hindquarters the sign of a standing sword crossing a crown showed like a banner of majesty and a warning to his enemies. The proof that he had been born to do what he was destined to: rule.

"Nopony is mobilizing the troops!" he exclaimed once again as he opened path. "Not while I'm here or have anything to say about it" Righteous Ire reached the dais where the other monarchs were and stood directly in their presence, towering the heralds with his intimidating presence. He didn't bow. As a sacred Alicorn he didn't need to, and besides, it was a perfect gesture to further emphasize his recently declared posture against the unicorn queen, which Dandelion seemed to have taken any less than to heart.

"Finally, our prince… " spoke Jewel Crown for once, drawing all attention while she did. "What have taken thou so long?"

Righteous Ire glared at his mother. "Punctuality is something to be expected… If a previous notification should be casted."

"Did the pegasus royal messenger got delayed?" inquired Bedrock.

"Delayed, lost, or somepony sent her in the wrong direction" snorted the alicorn. "But I'm not here to speak of the mediocrity of our communication system."

Bedrock laughed silently. "Oh, please, enlighten us since you were doing it so well!"

Righteous Ire took a long breath before speaking. All the eyes in the court room narrowed, and all the ears straightened, pending on his every word. "Don't get me wrong, your majesties, I trust in your judgement, but to gather the troops in this time of instability would only bring us trouble" he begun. "...Trouble that we don't already need, and even though we may acknowledge the problems that our neighbors are going through, we can't be that reckless" he turned to the prelates. "Or is it really necessary for me to remind you of our actual situation here in Agryte?"

A wave of bewilderment crossed the room. Argues and comments crackled against the alicorn like waves against a cliff. But like a cliff Righteous Ire stood silent until the storm of objections finished lashing him, unshaken.

"Interesting that you bring this to subject" spoke Bedrock after everypony finally settled. "Is there a particular reason as to why you speak like this now?" he asked as if he was already expecting the answer.

"As you may know… No, as you _should_ know, our diplomatic situation with the southern Covens is a success mostly because of our general withdrawal from the conflict and our unwillingness to partake in it since all this started. The families of Agryte led by the Voidstars have agreed the same, and under that banner we've been able even to open routes of trade. Have you forgotten how much our mercantile relations have brought upon pour arks?" no answer. "To mass our army under our borders would be to jeopardize that peace, and therefore endanger our kingdom. Tell me, monarchs and prelates, what use could it have to commit ourselves to a cause if we cannot even reach the north? Because I can hardly see us marching all over the continent if we are fighting the enemy in our very home."

This time was Bedrock and not Jewel Crown who smiled. "So, are you implying that our resources wouldn't stand getting into the conflict?"

"Whatever made thee say that!?" bursted Dandelion, barely hiding the anger that was raging inside her. "Are you seriously saying that our blessed nation is not up to the challenge of our era? That we lack of the strength and power to vanquish our enemies with our mighty arms?"

Obvious but surprisingly effective, an elevated number of comments of approval rose behind the alicorn's back. Righteous Ire got caught by surprise as well, but still stood firm, gazing at the monarch as she enjoyed her brief victory. Spoiled filly! He greeted his teeth. The only reason you're sitting there is because of your father, may he be spinning in his grave! Both looks collided when they left each other's eyes, Dandelion's with a childish satisfaction of a tantrum, and Righteous Ire with the relentless defiance of an idealist. In the end, even though he knew the possible outcome, he wasn't pushed back.

"Peace with the Noctees have been achieved by our words, not our swords" he sentenced. "Although you seem to ignore it, our crops are already delayed, and our mine ores are either flooded because of the rain season or near exhaustion. In this moment the least we could do is declaring war to the collectivities of the south. In fact, I seriously doubt that we get to be ready for the conflict by the end of the year."

"But you do consider the implications of joining the war" interjected Bedrock before the tide of comments rose again. "…The benefits that reopening commercial routes with the Crystal empire would report to us."

"They would hardly top those that we already get by trading with the Noctees" he turned to the stallion. "Because, let me remind you, the Southern Crystal Empire has already forfeit against the central Covens, and everything from here to Sky Peak* is now Noctees territory. Enlighten me if you may, how are we going to pass over a land controlled by the enemy, lest to speak of commerce? No, we wouldn't want a war with the Noctees. We couldn't withstand it, and we wouldn't win it."

"BLASPHEMY!" another voice shouted from the mob, breaking havoc after its sound.

A typhoon of words followed that first drop of chaos as raging arguments clashed from one direction to another. The breaking of the storm was so sudden, so insolent, that even those who hadn't partaken in it the first time found themselves thrown into it. Righteous Ire and the other monarchs couldn't escape this time to such insult, even if it was only addressed to the prince in question. A growing rage rapidly took over the hall. Some prelates demanded for silence, but their efforts were futile. Everything had just fell to pandemonium in the blink of an eye. This time, Jewel Crown, who was the only one that wasn't shouting, seemed disillusioned, sinked in her throne as she saw nonchalantly the terrible fight around her. How disappointing can sentimentality be when it came to make decisions.

Fortunately for her, things wouldn't go out of hoof… yet.

"STOOOOOP!" a cry rose from an indefinite point, something that placated the eruption of arguments with ease not because of its source, but because of how much desperation had resonated in that shrilling plea. In the midst of all, the herald mare had broken to tears, and looked as if every word that the alicorn had said before were the stab of a spear to her heart. "Please…" she cried once all looks had placed upon her. "Please, hear us out! You need to understand the dire of our situation! Not only our leaders have fallen, but their royal house in in danger. By deceasing our king has left no suitable heir to the throne, and if something happens to the queen… then there will be nopony to rule over us! We'll be undirected, vulnerable, and hopeless. There will be anything left to live for, to fight for, and if the Noctees win the war…" she gulped. "Then there won't be any value for life anymore. Our daughters will grow without hope or courage, our sisters will become slaves, and every value or ideal that we've fought for would have been for nothing!" she wiped the tears in her cheeks before continuing. "Please understand that this is not a cry for help from the Crystal Empire, but from our very selves! Our future, our very lives are the ones that are i n danger and are the ones that we ask you to protect! Because we know that even though you're not perfectly suited, you have the means and the strength to help us. We've beaten the odds, and crossed a land controlled by the enemy putting our lives to risk at every inch of the way just to reach you! Because we believed in the hearts of our sisters and know that they did it too. If you could only have the will, the courage, to stand at our side in the face of peril, and raise your swords and spears, even if it isn't for a good cause… Then I'm sure that our sisters and brothers would have won the approval of the Great Alicorn, for no sacrifice is greater than that a pony makes in the name of her siblings!"

The nothingness floated in the air once again, not a voice dared to resume the argument that they had just being thrown out from. Dandelion, already taken by the sentiment, was cleaning her tears with a silk scarf, and Bedrock was smiling with satisfaction. Only Righteous Ire seemed unpleased, but at least he looked like he knew that he wouldn't win anything anymore with words. Everypony else, even Jewel Crown, was looking at her with complete interest. So desperate she had been that, in fact, was making an outstanding job at moving them within, and it didn't required a great charm. Anypony, even the most stoic, could relate with despair.

The herald was completely standing, the look on her eyes no longer desperate, but compelling, even if it was a facade to cover her real feelings. A moment of silence had passed since her lips pronounced the last word of her speech, and everything seemed so still that it looked like taken out of a picture. An answer hanging in the valance with every second that the power of expectation delayed a final response to her final call for help.

"Save the Crystal Empire, make the draft!" another voice broke through, just like the first.

The voices rose again, but this time in a different kind of storm. The prelates, from their tribune, had united their voices into a single one: all of them were calling for war. The monarchs remained as immovable as their actual states allowed them to, trying to appease the steadily growing tide of demands, and Righteous Ire stood in his place without saying a word, perhaps out of resignation.

The only one that took real action, to everypony's surprise, had been Jewel Crown, that, followed by all the presents' eyes, stood up from her seat and walked down her dais dragging her golden cape. Both heralds, upon seeing her standing, knelt again, and even Righteous Ire bowed his head in reverence to his mother. The pegasus queen have had the overall same effect in the entire hall, and despite anypony may had a different opinion, all of them knew that her decision now would be definite.

Jewel Crown walked majestically to the Crystal Ponies until she found herself face to face with them. Both heralds were still kneeling, but the one that mattered now was the one who she had stopped before, directly gazing into her figure as she refused to look back to those piercing spots of amber. But she didn't had to.

Magnificently, just as nobly as her own person, Jewel Crown raised a single hoof and leaned it into the mare's shoulder. The unicorn, feeling the comforting touch of the queen, dared to forget the protocol and raised her head. Her eyes met those of Jewel's, and watered once more at how nearby they were, and at what they said as well. Brighting above a recently casted smile of kindness, Jewel Crown's look was the only thing so powerful to have, without saying a single word, clarified, to all who were watching, her posture, as well, by addition, as that of the Three Tribes'.

* * *

"I can't believe it!" exclaimed Righteous Ire as he peeked on the clouds outside the window. "A heartbroken mare cries like a filly and the hole court agrees upon something that they haven't even scheemed! How are we supposed to still be a kingdom?"

"Clam down, will you?" said Jewel Crown in the other side of the room. The personal chambers of the queen were something that lesser ponies could only dream with, but to those two the luxuries that were displayed in every inch of the room were strangely fit to their persons. "Its not so bad."

Righteous Ire turned, disbelieved. "Not so bad? Not so bad!? Who are you and what happened to the just mare that used to care for her subjects? 'Not so bad…' Why don't we take the liberty to throw holy Rosetta's deeds away now that we're into ruining everything that has been bequeathed to us?"

"You're very melodramatic" she giggled as she sat in front of a dressing table and began to get loose of her vestments. "You've always been a fatalist. Always looking to the bad side of things."

"Be ready for the worst and you won't be disappointed… Besides you hadn't been so kind as to tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"How are we going to get out of this mess you've so eagerly thrown us into."

Jewel Crown was giving her back to Righteous Ire, but even through the sight of the mirror he could swear that there was a change in her. Nothing too noticeable, but a slight grin, a distinctive blink that made her appear like a completely different pony for a moment. Sompepony more… ambitious.

"Because, my dear, what you fail to see is the great opportunity that has presented to us" she spoke, completely indifferent.

This caught Righteous Ire by surprise. "Pardon me?"

She took a long breath before speaking. "You know that I only care for your welfare, right? Yours and your sister's" she turned to face him. "And what's a mother's wish other than the best for her children?"

"Make your point" he demanded. It took a second, but realization suddenly occurred within him. "I… don't like where you're going."

"Why not?" she stepped out from her boudoir. "After all you heard that poor mare. There are not suitable heirs to rule the kingdom. So, while the little prince comes to age, who more perfect to rule it than a sacred alicorn himself?"

"…Or what's left of it!" he interjected. "If you haven't realized, not only will we have to cross enemy lines, but we'll have to face the Nocturnus too, and you know as well as I do what does that mean" he turned away to a tapestry that hanged from the wall, depicting a scene of battle between pegasus and griffons and stared at it. "From all families, they are the ones that hadn't stopped. Never surrender, never withdrew. They are devoted to their cause to vanquish our sisters so hard that they've waged war against our kind for a thousand years straight… They know our tactics, our formations, and our structure, and have the will to finish us at any cost. As the colt said, its just a matter of time, and I'm sure it won't change even if I'm thrown into the equation. Not with their actual resources."

"Sounds like if you admire them."

He turned again to her. "I like to pick my enemies with care, so that I know them before I face them… And, besides, there's still the problem of the Voidstars."

"What about them?"

"They are a liability. Now that we've declared our posture is just a matter of time before they take action in the matter. I wonder how much will it take before they close their commerce with us. Want to bet about that, or are you just going to pick another enemy for ponykind to face-?"

Righteous Ire stopped talking at the sight of her mother as something steadily grew inside her. At first he didn't notice, but as the shakes grew stronger it became apparent that she had tried in vain to contain an open laughter. Had he missed something, or was it something he'd say? No time to ask, because Jewel Crown took the word.

"You really are a fatalist!" she laughed briefly. "Oh, my poor, over-neurotic son…"

"Is there something I need to know?" he asked, taken back.

"What kind of ignorant do you think I am?" her smile became a more concupiscent gesture. "Haven't you considered that I may have followed this war closely, waiting for an opportunity like this? The dream of royalty is something that can destroy lesser wills, shatter them, but I trusted completely in the plan of the Great Alicorn, and in the end I wasn't disappointed. The way of making war of the Crystal Empire has shown that they are not to win by their own. Overconfident in their asset superiority, and too permissive to waste great quantities of resources uselessly. They may be richer than we will ever hope to achieve, but their way to face the conflict is that of a spoiled foal. It may have saved them in the past, but now the borderlines are narrowing in their missy little capital, and the voices are crying for help. Guess who will come to their aid? Of course that not other than their good-hearted sisters of the south, and even entrusted them with their prince to personally guarantee that our support is sincere! It doesn't matter how do they call it, we'll know who's in charge all the time."

He sat down, mediative. "I see… But what about the Voidstars?"

"Oh, please! You know better than I that they don't support the cause, and besides, they've been enemies of the Nocturnus for millennia. They won't raise a hoof against us other than cutting their commerce routes. 'An act of solidarity to their race', so it will be said. As long as we mass our army outside the border without raising suspicions we have nothing to fear" she came closer with a warm smile and leaned a hoof on his shoulder. "My son, you have the skill to manage this conflict, I'm certain. In all the service to our kingdom you've successfully managed the personal ambitions of Bedrock, and fixed all the messes of that pitiful excuse for a queen. You have the capacity and the knowledge of how to run a kingdom, and you've been trained in the ways of war by the Voidstars themselves! Tell me, who could ask for a better leader in times of need to trust whim with the future of an entire nation? I'm telling you, that if you don't take your chances you'll be a figure to be looked above, true…"

"But?"

She leaned forward, to whisper in his ear. "…But you will never realize your true potential."

That was it. Righteous Ire may have been stubborn, prideful and temperamental, but even he couldn't ignore reason. And what better reason than that spoken from the lips of a mare that, either he wanted to accept it or not, was, by the mere fact of bringing him to life, closer to him than the rest of the world. Jewel Crown, on her side, wasn't ignorant of this neither, and knew that the possible outcome of her words wasn't other than that special power that only a mother could have over her son. There was no need to discuss it anymore. From the moment he had come to life, Righteous Ire had lost the argument.

"So, what will it be?" she asked, topping her already signed victory. "Would you go and chase your own glory, true glory, or live an era in a glorified mediocrity?"

Righteous Ire stood unchanged, but in truth Jewel Crown knew exactly that inside him the storm was already raging. After all, who knew him better than she did?

"I guess… it makes sense" he sighed finally, standing up and reading to leave. "I'll communicate our plans for departure, maybe call the draft for tomorrow."

"I didn't expect any less" she said with grateful tone. "I raised you to be the best you can be, my son. So believe me when I say that I'm certain you're destined to greatness."

"Destined to greatness, huh? That's not up for me to decide" he made his way to the door. "We'll see if this plan of yours really turns out the way you expected…"

"It will" she assured. "I just know, just… Trust me."

"I do" he seemed like he was about to leave, but suddenly stopped. Jewel Crown's look was still fixed upon him. He turned again. "Yet…"

"Yes?"

"…Strangely, I believe that's not all."

She grinned again. "Always so perceptive, aren't you?" she giggled as she climbed to her bed. "Its just a whim. It doesn't have to do with our plan or your mission…"

"Mother, you've already convinced me of this madness" he sighed again in resignation. "Spill it out."

Jewel Crown's smile widened as, inside her skull, a process of thought seemed to start picking words to use in the more proper way. Righteous Ire stood by the entrance to the room, waiting for her to say something, although she seemed to be taking her time. At first he was just expectant, but as that fleeting moment developed, somehow, something inside him began to grow, producing a bad feeling about what she'd say next.

And in the end he wasn't disappointed.

* * *

The plan carried out as expected. The next day another meeting was held. The council didn't reject the motion for a draft, and at the marveled eyes of the Crystal Empire's heralds all the congressponies paraded their material support in front of their monarchs. At first it seemed futile, but as the amounts of soldiers and assets began to grow, suddenly the quantity of the kingdom of Agryte began to look less like an aid, and more like an open campaign force against the Noctees. In truth there wasn't much difference, but not everypony can look at the bigger picture.

Much joy and hopes were placed upon the sum of assets and pony resources that were massed in the final paper, but when Jewel Crown offered her son to command the army, and Righteous Ire agreed, the surprise was such that even the heralds, with tearing eyes, knelt before the great queen and pleaded allegiance to her with their lives. To most of the commoners, the inclusion of Righteous Ire was nothing else rather than the definite proof of the commitment of the Three Tribes with their sisters, but for the more clever, the participation of the prince was the only thing that was required to seal the destiny of their people, because there was no mistake now: the land of Agryte had joined the largest-scale war that the world had ever known.

After that what followed was the calling of the draft and the preparation for the expedition. All barns were opened, their goods reclaimed for the sustenance of the army, and the forges and smithies worked at full capacity for full days and nights. In every town of the three races soldiers were called alike. The Royal Guard started to recruit every disposable mare and stallion to expand their numbers, method that proved more than effective, since within a month their ranks had doubled.

As Jewel Crown ordered, the troops' camp was set outside of the borders, and the massing of the army was made as discretely as possible. Under the vigilant watch of Righteous Ire, the assets were gathered with mathematical precision, not a single seed or pound of floor wasted due to miscalculations, and new recruits were trained, equipped, and disposed as the most coherent, efficient unit as they could be. In truth that, even if the alicorn had already shown his skills at organizing, the proficiency by which he readied everything made even the most learned logistics to drop their jaws in awe at how fast did the prince managed to make, almost by himself, his very own army.

In the end, a camp of over ten thousand tents were displayed with the most efficiency as possible, and every stallion guard and mare were given enough supplies to ration until they reach the north. Lances were sharp and swords were as bright as mirrors. Shields shone with the cutie marks of those who wielded them, and banners were displayed from the provinces they proceeded. Troops and battalions were organized by their race and land of origin. Charts and chariots with supplies for the crystal ponies conformed an entire fleet at the center of the camp, and had their own teams to pull them. Indeed the land of Agryte had prepared itself very well for a full scale war.

It took over a month an a half to gather the supplies and train the recruits.

Five weeks to set the camp completely.

Three days of inventory check before setting march.

…_An only one hour for the Noctees to find out about the whole endeavor._

* * *

_One month later…_

Specks of light floated in the air, swirling and scrolling in tones of white and yellow as they brought illumination to the air. A phosphorescence of unknown origin kept everything from falling into total darkness as shadows passed from one naked wall to another. Inside the Sanctorum, light was provided by that particular kind of magic, but wether if it was intended because of its master's will or just a convenient side effect of the power that was stored inside it had always been a mystery that not even its builders could've figured out. Not that it was of his interest nowadays.

Mourn, on the other hoof, was a different subject. The only thing that was present at the moment aside of a slight scent of concern, fright perhaps at what the future may bring, as if suddenly the world had lost something that prevented it to became a more insecure, dangerous place. A place where his own mortality was more than just real. A place where the empty seat at his left wouldn't be filled in a long, long time. It was an undeniable fact. Those were his feelings nowadays.

In the circular room the noise of the breathing of at least twenty sets of lungs silently echoed through the stone walls that the sun had never touched like the whisper of the wind, but to their ears something completely noticeable. Dots of yellow pierced the faint dark left by the swirls of color, moved by the will of the masters which they belonged to, and figures of shadow darker than the half light in the chamber stirred in their seats as they went about their personal concerns, most of which centered in the precise moment when the single most powerful voice from the room spoke.

"Tell. Me. Again" he asked, resonating with a tone so grave that it almost sounded like a growl.

With a still gaze and a taciturn position, his wings wrapped around his body, and cloaked into a black cape, Semias Nocturnus, the Allfather of the Nocturnus Coven and undisputed head of his family, watched from his throne into the center of the room, sixty feet away, where the messenger from the outside stood, surrounded by the looks of dozens of individuals.

"Would you care to repeat that?" he asked again with his guttural voice, not moving anything else rather than his mouth. "Because my ears must be getting older than I."

Semias' teeth showed below his lips like the fangs of a predator, waiting to taste the living flesh. Like all of his offspring, Semias Nocturnus was the living image of the ideals of his Coven, and the finest exemplar of his breed. His coat was dark brown, and his mane was as black as a starless sky and flanked by two furry extensions by ears. His eyes were yellow bright, but unlike the rest of his siblings, they shone with the sickening light of a dying star. Two drops of something that perhaps could have been brighter, but that now were a faint memory of happiness. The joy that a thousand years of war had taken care of extinguishing.

Standing in the map-shaped floor of the room, clad into a bronze armor, the messenger from the Voidstar Coven, a snow white male Umbra with black stripes through his body, remained unblinking, giving the impression that he didn't care whether if he was surrounded by Nightmancers that could end his life in the blink of an eye or not.

"What do you wish me to repeat, milord?" asked the Voidstar.

Semias frowned, another rage access trying to burst outside of his mind, but that he managed to restrain before answering. "Everything" he hissed. "I want you to repeat everything. Just so I can verify the size of your lady's treason."

Mutters floated in the room, but nothing else. The Voidstar's messenger, remaining as collected as someone in his position could, took a long breath and prepared himself to begin again… For the third time. "My lady Boudicca is conscious of your troubles, and truthfully regrets your losses, but declines your request of sending reinforcements to the collectivities of the east, so that it may jeopardize the peace with the Three Tribes, and your request to support the cause for the same question. Nothing else" and then silence extinguished the sound that followed after his words with the power of a definite resolution. Only yellow stares were set on him. There it was, expecting to be asked, for the third time, his question. "What is your reply to lady Boudicca?"

Semias' teeth clenched as he lied back in his seat. Nothing came out of his lips rather than a growl of disgust. It looked as if he'd ask him to repeat his message, again, but his contempt was successfully restrained this time. "Leave" he waved to him. "And ask your lady if she's still wondering about wether if stars can die."

The messenger looked confused about his words, but it wasn't his position to question. "I will, milord" he vowed and proceeded to leave.

The looks of all the Nocturnus followed the foreigner as he departed until he exited the place, leaving behind the door frame only sets of stares and more whispers in the wind, pronounced by lips that were not as nearly as close to imagine the feelings of the sole master of all of their destinies in that moment. The only one whom the humor of an equal had just stripped vital space to breathe.

"Everyone else is dismissed" Semias said when the messenger was gone. "Go about your business. I shall communicate to you later" the eyes of all the room centered for a moment in his figure, but the Allfather wasn't in the mood to give explanations. "Go!" he commanded, now aggressively. "Get out of here!"

The room promptly hollowed, as all its inhabitants left, shutting the door after the last had exited. Semias remained in his throne, watching from afar how all his siblings left one by one, or two at times to continue their daily routine… That was if it was still day outside.

"What else could go wrong today?" he thought aloud as he exasperatedly rubbed the bridge of his nose, the finger thumbs of his wings reaching up to hold his head on their respective temple.

"Father?" a voice entered his ears from the darkness. Beyond his sight at his right, the form of a female Nightmancer had showed up and was moving towards him. "What's the matter?"

Charias… Great, another dramatist. "I thought I told you to leave" Semias lied back in his seat. "I'll put you at day when I deliberate."

Charias smiled sideways. "Yeah, that's the same excuse you've put to all of us these days" she stopped before his throne. "Now, I need a straight answer, and I'm not leaving until you give me one."

Semias rose his eyes so that they met with hers. Nothing even near to relief in his gaze. "What makes you think that I'll talk about that with you?"

She shrugged. "Talking never hurts."

"Not this time" he sighed, looking away to the empty seat. "Not this time…"

Charias followed his gaze into its destination and almost immediately acknowledged what he was talking about. "I loved Demias too" she said in an empathic tone. "He… Was an inspiration to everyone around" she walked into the small seat spot where once sat the firstborn of their family. "Its still hard to believe that he's not with us anymore" she turned to him. "Everyone thinks so."

He shook his head. "He was the one, I was certain" his voice trembled briefly. "We fought against the forces of Tirac, the messenger of Darkness, together, overcame the Changeling rebellion… All to get to this."

Charias' ears lowered to this in sorrow. "Our demise is the only thing certain" she mumbled. "At least we can choose how to face our death in our own way."

"Oh, yes, thanks for the lecture, very much" he growled sarcastically. "But next time try not to quote my phrases."

"Then what else?" she asked in return. "A master should know his teachings. Isn't that why are you seating in that throne and not in a grave?"

"Be careful with your insolence!" he exclaimed as he displayed his wings, five feet long each, menacingly. "For it may cost you more than my wrath."

"W-wait!" Charias knew that she shouldn't look frightened, but even though she'd seen the rage bursts of her Alfather before, the way Semias looked at her in that moment made her gave a step back. "We've all lost something in this war! That's nothing new" she tried not to stammer, looking carefully at the sharp edges of his wings. "Its not as if we didn't loose a brother, or a father for that matter. Half a generation of this family owes him the right to be living now. I owe him that gift. He was my father as much as he was your son… As much as you are our father."

Semias stood up, giving a step towards her with his wings held high. "And yet you stand here, belittling his memory!" he snorted. "You brat, have you got no respect for the dead, or is family not important to you anymore?"

"Then what do you want me to say? That he didn't die?" she snapped, another step back. "You were the one that told us to overcome our sorrow, that the cause was worth it! Perhaps I wasn't born during better times, but I've managed! And now you crumble like a cub because you've lost a loved one? How does that make you different than the rest of us? How is that more important than all the sacrifices we've made?"

"Sacrifices!?" he almost screamed. "Who are you to speak about sacrifices?" Semias' hoof scratched the floor beneath it as it slowly became a fist, and his muscles began to tremble as an unspoken anger steadily grew within him, threatening to tear apart everything that'd be foolish enough to get into his reach. "Four Covens" he mumbled, pausing every word as his wrath allowed him to. "Four entire families have extinguished before my eyes, under my watch… One of them were descendants of Demias… Our whole lineage has been burned by the Horsemaster's stems in from of my eyes, and I couldn't do nothing to stop it! Even if we've made them pay for every life they've taken. Vengeance doesn't bring back the dead. The slay of a king is not worth if that means that our victory still eludes us! And now that that hag of the south has preferred to betray her own blood an flesh for her damn equine friends, we're truly alone…" something shone below the topaz half light of his eyes. "And now that the swarm has risen over my offspring's corpse, now that the blood of the killed is about to be wiped with the blood of the killers, why? Why must the world act as if they were theft and blind, and deny us our just retribution!?" Charias had already risen her wings defensively, prepared to be stroke by him, but, surprisingly, his gaze hanged low instead and something dropped from his face. A single shine in the name of countless others that that one was surely following. "There is no justice in this world" he sentenced as his head followed his look into the septs, his wings following his defeatist posture. "Only our sorrow."

Charias lowered her wings, for she knew that he wouldn't mean no harm… for now. Still, she didn't desisted. "Every father must burrow his sons sooner or later during times of war" she got closer to him. "The nature of death has always preferred to court the lives of the young rather than the old, that's nothing new, and Demias knew that" she leaned her wing on his shoulder. "He's just another part of us that we've left behind."

"Just another part of us…" he mumbled as he got up again. "No matter how much I've thought about it. No matter how much I mourn, this burden seems to get only heavier. Tell me, who do you think that'll be next. Erias, Hadias… You?" he gave a long sigh. "How many other sons must I sacrifice before this conflict its finished claiming its toll?"

Chairas doubted to speak for a moment, for she knew what he thought about it, but now it seemed like a better time than any other. "Wel… There's Thano's option."

"Thano's option?" he opened his eyes wide, almost completely shocked at her words.

She hesitated before continuing, for his voice had became even more menacing than anything in her conversation in those last words. "He has outlasted the conflict" she said, defensively. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Thano's an idealist" he replied scornfully, stepping away from her reach. "He doesn't see reality anymore. All he cares about are his visions."

"But he's alive nonetheless" she riposted. "If all of us'd do the same-"

"If al of us would do the same we'd be dead in a month!" he snapped. "…And if he'd be a little more realist, perhaps he would still have a family."

"What?" she puzzled. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing is that simple" he rubbed the bridge of his nose again. "Not anymore…" he turned as if he were about to leave, but Charias cut him.

"Father, what are you talking about?" she asked again, in a more demanding tone.

"Out of the way" he snorted. "I'll let you know when I deliberate-"

"To Tartarus with that!" she yelled this time. "You've been eluding your duties to us for weeks now, and I'm not leaving until I get a straight answer!"

Semias looked back at her with many mixed feelings: surprise, confusion, and, mostly, anger. A deaf ire that seemed to posses his every thought for a moment and that no matter how much he frowned, it couldn't be nearly completely expressed. He gave a step in Charias' direction, who jumped back again at seeing him trying to reach her, but stopped in the act. Many things tried to manifest in his body, actions that stumbled against each other to be expressed, though the younger nightmancer knew that her Allfather could end her life with the simple swing of a though… Perhaps it was better for him not to know how to punish her for her audacity.

"AGH!" he screamed at last in frustration. Next thing that happened was that the erstwhile seat of his son blew up to pieces, detonated by the Allfather's wrath. "There!" he exclaimed, so furious that he didn't even noticed the shrapnel that rained at his back, deflected against an invisible shield. "Now get out of my sight!"

Charias didn't knew exactly what to say to not be beheaded by her grandparent, but still stated clear her posture. "Tell me first!" she demanded.

Luck, that was the only thing that saved her. That or Semias didn't really wanted to strike her. Either way, before Charias could blink, a dark brown blade without wielder suddenly manifested in plain air and swung vertically, aimed for her.

Charias ducked, but just in time. The ethereal blade passed beside her and, like if everything else were made of paper, cut though the floor and walls without effort, splitting perfectly in two another seat in its way.

Charias got up again and looked at what her Allfather's attack had made. Semias, in front of her, was looking at her with feverish eyes. Eyes that she hadn't looked on him save for when he faced off with Diamond Glass… "F-father" she stammered, not sure wether to run or not.

Semias suddenly screamed at her. Nothing intelligible, just a deafening roar in her general direction that made her jump back as if he had made another strike trying to cut her in half. Charias readied herself to run, again, but still didn't move. It didn't take more than a second or two to notice that Semias had just screamed, nothing more, and that now his heavy breathe was just staidly diminishing… She didn't kew wether to expect another attack, or just for him to calm down completely, but the mere fact that she was still whole, her head over her shoulders, comforted her enough not to run away screaming at top of her lungs.

"You're not going to leave me alone until I tell you, will you?" he asked suddenly, still breathing heavily.

Charias had to fight through the fright she still felt to gave an answer. "W-what can I say?" she shrugged, smiling nervously. "I've always been stubborn."

Just like her father… Semias looked back at her with contempt, but this time it didn't seem as if he'd do something that reckless."Fine" he gave in as the floor in the room steadily became brighter. "BUT you must promise on your life that what you'll know in this room will remain between us. At least until I find a way to acknowledge this to the others."

"I'm at your disposal, father" she bowed. "Though, I believe a good advise never fails."

Semias snorted again as he looked at her with incredulous eyes. "We'll see…"

Before them, the map of the continent that was drawn in the floor suddenly took shape and relief as forms started to become steadily a completely colored map of the known world, or at least the world that mattered.

Charias watched the display of magic with a little bit of awe. It didn't matter if she'd seen it before, she wouldn't tire of knowing that it was Semias' conscience alone that displayed that image. How much does the Allfather needed to know how to place every mountain, every creek specifically and even give them a lively animation?

"Well, then" he sighed as in the map appeared different marks, like symbolic pieces of chess. "Tell me, what do you see?"

Charias watched them with keen concern as they slowly revolved around the map. There were the last know position of the Crystal Empire's forces in the east, and the Changeling Swarm massed more to the west, faced with at least five other kinds of miniatures of different colors which represented the western collectivities.

Amidst them, the one that had the color of the Nocturnus was lying in horizontal position. A clinch of sadness suddenly lighted in Charias' mind. Demias' forces… She took the sigh away from there. She knew that even Semias still didn't like it.

"Anything of interest?" asked Semias, a little weary of Charias' silence.

Charias checked the map once more. "Nothing" she shrugged. "Nothing until…"

Her eyes suddenly fixed in something that she'd missed the first time. Though it wasn't something that could be easily missed, the mere position of it and its existence were the primal indicators as to what she didn't expect. And that was what made her wonder.

"What is that?" she asked, pointing south to the green piece of a winged unicorn that was moving upwards.

Semias took a long breath, and almost held it for half a minute before letting it out. "That" he nodded in its direction. "Is the beginning of our trouble" he rose his eyes towards Charias', a radiant concern shining in them. "That is our death, heading towards us."

* * *

**Glossary (in case you wondered...):**

Agryte: former kingdom of the pony Three Tribes, south of the equestrian continent, before the coming of the Windigoes and the founding of Equestria.

The Great Alicorn: the central figure in alicornism beliefs, the official religion of Agryte.

Sky Peak: former name of the mountain where Canterlot now lies.

Rosetta: first Alicorn to exist and the reason of the establishment of alicornism for ending of the conflict between the griffons and ponies during the colonization of Agryte (For further detail read The Chronicles of the Horsemaster).

* * *

Inspiration:

From yesterday - 30 Seconds to Mars

War of change - Thousand Foot Krutch

Alejandro - Warcry

Alma de Conquistador - Warcry

Zombie - Breed 77 cover


End file.
